User:Briannaanewton/Moken

Moken is spoken by inhabitants in western Burma and Southern Thailand, who refer to themselves as Moken [people] and Mawken (Bay, 1995). The language is closely related to the dialect of Moklen, and can be mistaken to be similar to Urak Lawoi' but is in actuality distantly related (Bay, 1995). They are also regarded as "sea people" as the speakers are primarily concentrated within the Andaman Sea (Shaw et al., 2008).

An oral language, Moken is a Malayo-Polynesian language constructed after the migration of the southern Chinese to Taiwan 5,000-6,000 years ago, resulting in the development of this Austronesian language (Dancause et al., 2009). While the population consists of 4,000 Moken, only an estimated 1,500 native speakers remain, causing the dialect to be threatened with extinction (Lewis, 2009).

Out of the ethnic population, the main speakers of Moken are the elder generations as it's lack of literacy becomes difficult in the transference of the language (Kraisame, 2018), however it's lack of literacy has also helped conserve the language. Their title of "sea people" alludes to their grand knowledge of the sea, as that was their way of migration, and the traditional lifestyle of remaining within villages has built generations of marine and forest knowledge as well as boating skills. The advantages of their lifestyle were capitalised when the Surin Islands, where a great many Moken reside, experienced a great tsunami in December 2004 as their ancestors have integrated legends of the "seven rollers" and the "laboon" [giant wave] (Shaw et al., 2008).